There has been a long-felt but unsatisfied need in the packaging machinery industry for a system which effectively and reliably removes bundles of carton blanks or other sheet-like products from a pallet, and feeds the bundles into a hopper leading to associated machinery.
Prior to this invention, human machine operators had to lift such products from pallets and manually load them into a hopper. Requiring these functions to be performed manually: decreases production line efficiency; increases chances of injuries to operators; and results in a higher product cost.
The forenamed recognized needs have not heretofore been sufficiently fulfilled by existing packaging machinery.
It is therefore a primary object of this invention to provide an automated system for the removal of carton bundles from a where they are stacked, such as on a pallet, removal of the restraining straps encircling the bundles, and feeding of the carton blanks to a hopper.
It is a further object of this invention to provide such a system which removes and disposes of the straps encircling the bundles.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide such a system which can remove the bundles from any pallet or stack configuration or pattern, such as pinwheel stack patterns, column stacks, etc.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide such a system which can be used in combination with any one of a number of carton handling machines downstream, one example of which is a carton erector.
This invention achieves the foregoing objectives as set forth more fully herein.